B&W Y-12 receives DOE sustainability awards

B&W Y-12 recently received two U.S. Department of Energy Sustainability Awards at a ceremony during the 2012 GreenGov Symposium in Washington, D.C.

The award recognizes innovation and excellence in sustainability, pollution prevention, and environmental sustainability stewardship efforts within DOE, a press release said. An independent panel chose Y-12 from about 137 nominations for two of this year’s 20 awards.

“Today’s Sustainability Award winners are leading by example, showing what’s possible when employees bring creativity, innovation, and dedication to their efforts to make the Department of Energy more sustainable,” DOE Deputy Secretary Daniel Poneman said. “The efforts undertaken by these individuals and teams are helping the department to deliver on President Obama’s sustainability goals, while inspiring others both inside and outside of government to start investing in cost-saving clean energy technologies.”

Y-12’s awards were:

• Reaching Beyond—Y-12 Sustainability Outreach, which included collaborative outreach activities within the Y-12 complex, in the local community, and at the national level, and
• Y-12 Targeted Excess Materials Program Pursues Sustainable Disposition Paths, which addresses hard-to-disposition excess legacy materials, critical and strategic materials and equipment.

As part of the award-winning outreach activities, the Sustainability and Stewardship Program held for the second year a round-up of employees’ personal electronic equipment using e-Cycle, a local company that recycles or finds new homes for unwanted electronics, to help gather some 685 pieces of equipment and keeping more than 4,700 pounds of material from waste disposal.

A new addition to this year’s event, the Michael Dunn Center Work Programs, a local workshop for those with developmental disabilities, was on-site to accept personal non-work-related paperwork for shredding. The event had 1,124 pounds of paper bypassing the landfill and being recycled.

“We’re happy to offer this service to Y-12 employees and subcontractors,” said B&W Y-12 Sustainability and Stewardship Program Manager Jan Jackson. “It allows us to help employees who graciously help our programs throughout the year.”

Efforts such as the equipment round-up have helped Y-12 rise this year to the Gold Level in the Environmental Protection Agency’s Federal Electronics Challenge.